Plotting the next chapter

With fast economic development around the world, internet users have been increasing over the years, witnessing the prosperity of social media and the popularity of online reading. As a result, digital publishing businesses are growing quickly and the market size of electronic books is also expanding, with digital library programs and online educational products increasing constantly.

In recently years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, book lovers have found new ways to read, access content and disseminate it, which has posed challenges for the traditional publishing industry, but has also brought new opportunities.

Launched in 2016, the International Publishing Forum has attracted industry insiders from many different countries and regions to gather and explore new paths for international publishing cooperation.

This year, under a theme of "innovative publishing and win-win cooperation", the forum, held in Beijing in June, focused on the integration of digital technologies and publishing.

Wu Shulin, head of the Publishers Association of China, said at the forum that, in international communications and exchanges within the publishing industry, what matters most is that all countries need to use new ideas and methods to spread knowledge, deliver innovation, and push forward with technological advancement.

Wu said that, over the past four decades, the publishing industry has met a crisis every seven or eight years, and now, "confronted with changes unseen in 100 years, with ChatGPT, AI, a shrinking market, a global economic downturn and so on …how can we continue the glory of the publishing industry?"

Chinese publishers need to think about how to apply new technologies faster and better so that their publishing ideas and methods can catch up with global publishing trends, he said.

Mao Yuansheng, deputy general manager of China Publishing and Media Co, said that, when studying how to promote high-quality development of the publishing industry, he realized that it lacks a strong enough innovation drive. Compared with the previous years, new publications that can satisfy the changing needs of people are reducing, which is partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but is also because of a decline in original works, which is, in turn, worsened by the impact of new information technology and new media.

"Applying new technologies to publishing requires the joint effort of publishers," he said.

For Karine Pansa, president of the International Publishing Association, the core of the publishing business has always been to look for fresh stories, create new formats using the latest technologies and find innovative ways to reach new readers.

To better apply this core innovative spirit to publishing, she said, publishers around the world should cooperate to find ways to make up for the weakness in data collection (about companies and consumers) for the publishing industry, work harder to protect copyrights around the world, especially with challenges posed by fast-developing AI technology, and spread knowledge to protect our planet from the global climate crisis.

Li Yongqiang, president of China Renmin University Press, said that AI can improve publishing efficiency and working methods. With the advancement of AI, intelligent translation can help Chinese publications reach overseas readers more quickly, so as to further promote the communication and exchanges between different cultures around the world.

As more readers develop a preference for online reading, a trend fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, international publishing cooperation has had to turn toward new modes of copyright cooperation, especially in digital products, such as databases and digital books, he said.

The trend toward international publishing cooperation in digitalization continues to deepen with innovative methods being developed. For example, China Renmin University Press cooperated with Italian university Luiss to build a China center at Koc University in Turkiye, which integrates the exhibition of Chinese books, academic communications and exchanges, cultural communications and exchanges and publishing cooperation, he said.

Niels Peter Thomas, president of Springer Nature China and managing director of books for the corporation, presented a book at the forum that was independently created by AI in 2019. AI has obvious advantages in delivering quantity, quality, efficiency, and so on, but there are many passive consequences, he said.

For example, if a machine generates too much content in a short time, it will be very difficult for publishers to process the content. For academic works, editors need to check whether they are really written by the claimed authors, he said.

He added that there are a lot of challenges the publishing industry has to deal with in the era of AI. How to improve the existing technologies in AI text generation to be bias-free and inclusive? Which copyright is applicable? Who takes responsibility? How to control quality by peer review of machine-generated content?

Before any of these queries are really settled, the industry needs to conduct a lot of experiments, determining answers through trial and error, which requires the participation of the whole publishing community, he said.